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I recently finished reading Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson, a great book if you want to learn about the boundaries of the human body and how to perform close to them. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in that sort of thing but I’m not going to write a review on the book, I don’t have the right energy or audience for that. Instead I’d like to focus on one insight I got from the book which comes from the unconventional way most Kenyans run long distance races.
The normal strategy runners have when running a distance race is rather simple. Start with a goal time, let’s use a three hour marathon as an example, (quite fast for the average person but incredibly slow for an elite runner) then calculate how much time each mile (or if more appropriate kilometer or lap) should take if the race is run at a consistent speed then figure out what time a runner should be at at each mile marker. With our three hour marathon example each mile should take about six minutes and fifty two seconds so the runner should hit the first mile at 6:52, the second at 13:44, the third at 20:36 and so on.
Some runners or coaches may adjust these splits slightly to push for faster times at either the beginning or end of the race, but in general this is the strategy most people use when running a race. It is what my coaches did for me when I ran cross country in high school (I wasn’t any good at hitting my times) and in reading Hutchinson’s accounts of his races, split times were usually among his primary focus while running. But, we learn from reading Endure, that isn’t how the average Kenyan runs:
Why do Kenyans run the way they do? According to filmmaker and former elite runner Michael Del Monte, who spent months in the heart of Kenyan running culture while filming the documentary Transcend about the rise of marathoner-turned-politician Wesley Korir, it comes down to belief. Even the humblest Kenyan runner, he noticed, wakes up every morning with the firm conviction that today, finally, will be his or her day. They run with the leaders because they think they can beat them, and if harsh reality proves that they can’t, they regroup and try again the next day. And that belief, fostered by the longstanding international dominance of generations of Kenyan runners, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. (pages 249-250)
This strategy, or lack thereof, first reminded me of the spending habits I observed in people while I was living in a third-world country. The concept of saving was completely foreign to these people so they’d keep spending money until they had none left to spend, (obviously a terrible financial plan). In races these runners would run as hard as they could until they couldn’t keep up anymore. Some may fall behind at mile six of a marathon, some at mile twelve, and some will hold strong up until mile twenty, but almost always each of these less elite runners will fall behind. Almost always.
It seems this strategy, or ,to phrase it more accurately, this mindset, eventually works. These Kenyans’ fuel is their belief that they are capable of great things, and because they have that belief they eventually accomplish those great things.
Let’s compare what could be going on in the head of a typical elite runner with a traditional running strategy before racing a marathon to that of a Kenyan running on belief.
The typical runner and their coach will spend time analyzing their training performance and will calculate the best time that they think they can achieve, let’s say the time they come up with is around 2:09 so if all goes according to plan the runner will cross the finish like right at that time. But what happens when he gets to the starting line and sees other runners there who typically run 2:07s? Before the race even starts he knows he isn’t going to beat them so he has lost the race before it even began. He might ask himself what the point of running the race is if he already knows he is going to loose, the only way he can win is if the runners he knows are faster than him have a bad day, he believes fate is outside of his hands.
Our typical Kenyan running on belief won’t have this sense of pessimism and dread. Instead he will be optimistic and excited to race. He sees the runners favored to win and believes today is his day to take them down. In reality he probably won’t do it but that isn’t important, he believes he can therefore he will try his hardest to do it, he believes he is in control of his own fate so he will be willing to put a lot more effort into that race than the guy who is convinced he already lost before the race began.
Of course if we were to place bets on which of these two runners would cross the finish line first I’d put my money on the guy who paces himself properly over the guy running on belief any day. But that isn’t the result we should really care about here because I’m not going to be racing olympians in a marathon anytime soon and I don’t think you are either. The point I want to focus on is that the guy who believe he can do great things is going to push himself harder and longer than the guy who doesn’t. The key to doing great things is believing you can.
My dad likes to learn about backpackers who go out on long thru hikes like the 2,600+ mile Pacific Crest Trail. He has learned that some hikers will spend months or even years training for that adventure while others will hop right onto the trail; some will be in great shape while others will start the journey 100 lbs overweight. You’d think that things like preparation or fitness would play a factor in predicting whether or not someone would complete the trail but they don’t, those who trained drop out at the same rate that those who didn’t, the fit hikers drop out at the same rate the fat ones do (although the fat guys don’t stay fat for long). The difference in those who complete the trail and those who don’t isn’t in preparation, fitness, social status or anything like that it is in mindset. The people who have a strong belief in themselves finish while those who don’t won’t.
I’ve heard similar things about people who enter training for special forces in the military; on day one nobody can predict who will complete the training based off of background or appearance, belief in oneself is probably the only thing that matters there. I’ve also seen a statistic out there that claims the vast majority of CEOs out there played some sort of sport at a high level in high school or even college. One cannot play a sport at that level without believing in oneself, that belief is probably what pushed them to work hard in their career to get to that level in their companies.
The “Revised and Updated” version of Endure includes an Afterward that the original version did not. In it Hutchinson explains that he met a lot of readers who were satisfied on his reporting of what human limitations were but they still wanted to know how to push past them. The book tells us how we can optimize material things like hydration and nutrition but the benefits of these optimizations are nothing in comparison to the power that changing what goes on inside one’s head does. Hutchinson writes:
I do discuss some limit-changers in the last section of the book: sports psychology techniques like motivational self-talk; brain endurance training; electric brain stimulation. The latter two options usually get most of the attention, despite evidence that remains skimpy. They feel fresh and counterintuitive. Self-talk, in contrast, just sounds like a fancy name for some generic and cliched advice. “Tell yourself, ‘You can do it!’” doesn’t seem like a very rewarding payoff after reading 300 pages, no matter how impressive the supporting research is. (page 270)
Like a lot of other readers I was a bit underwhelmed that the best way for one to improve their physical performance was to believe in oneself, in reading the rest of the afterward one can see that Hutchinson probably was as well. But when you think about it it makes sense, you can’t hack biology but you can hack psychology. And believing in yourself will improve every aspect of your life.
Now that I’ve gotten this far into writing this article I realize I should have spent some time researching more ways you can grow your self confidence and foster a belief in yourself, but I feel like it would probably be better and more personal if I share what I think of without such research instead of generic and cliched advice you might find elsewhere.
The “motivational self-talk” Hutchinson speaks of is great but it doesn’t work if you aren’t in the middle of doing something hard so make sure you do something hard every day. I’ve picked up running and the act of running sucks but the feeling of accomplishment afterwards is great and all I want to do after completing a run is go again. Doing something hard daily builds your self confidence and belief in yourself because you are actively proving to yourself that you can do hard things. If you realize that it has been a long time since you have done something hard, physically or mentally, you need to make a change.
You were born to do something great, but you need to believe that in order to do those great things. Strive to be like the Kenyan runner who, “wakes up every morning with the firm conviction that today, finally, will be his or her day.” Let today be your day to make a change, do hard things, and believe.